Went up to Devil's Lake State Park this afternoon to do a little photography. The color isn't yet prime, but is pretty good. The sky was fully overcast though so I didn't get the vivid color I was hoping for. There is still time left in the season though.

Repair Complete

Finished up the repair to the trim around the screen porch on the second floor. We had to replace the screen and there was a fair bit of rot. So I decided I would replace some of the wood as well. I think the repair worked out pretty good and looks a lot better than it did.

The ride to breakfast this morning was 34°F and with no gloves was a little on the chilly side. I ride much slower when it's cold. I hold around 14.5 to 15 MPH for normal rides, but only did 13.4 MPH. I think the loss in speed is because I can't dissipate the my core heat. So while my extremities are cold, my torso is hot. I worked from a coffee shop today because I wanted to be left alone to finish up some things. When I finished my day at noon the temperature had risen to a much more comfortable 61°F which. But I had lost all push and did a very slow ride back home.

My cellphone has a bad habit of unlocking itself and changing settings while in my pocket. Yesterday during the rain it did this, and among the settings modified was the state of my morning alarm for work. So I woke up about 2 hours late. Good job phone. I worked latter to make up for lost time, and still got home in time to bike down to campus for AHA. It was 48°F when I left, and 39°F when I returned. Starting to get pretty chilly.

About to get wet

I was unable to cycle yesterday and today the temperature was suppose to be pretty tolerable. There was a 20% chance of rain in the morning, with 80% chance in the afternoon, dropping back to 20% my 5:00pm. I decided I would ride because Thursday and Friday are suppose to be much cooler. A couple blocks into my ride I noticed a flash in the sky. At first I thought it was just a car, but a short time latter observed another. By the time I reached Vilas Park the flashes were pretty regular, and I started to push the peddles a little harder. When I reached Waunona Way there was some booming thunder accompanying the flashes. And when I reached Paunack Park it was starting to sprinkle. I knew I was going to be getting wet, took off the headphone and moved my phone to my pocket. By Bridge Road it began to downpour. There was a flashing of lightening followed immediately by a loud boom. The weather was getting vicious and I still had a couple miles to go. I was completely saturated, but luckily it wasn't cold at all. When I got to work even my shoes sloshed. I was leaving trails as I worked around.
My bike panniers are completely water proof and I always bring a change of clothing to work. So getting myself dry wasn't an issue. I was concerned about getting my cycling clothing and shoes dry enough for the return ride. I use a small fan at work to dry my shirt and pants off, and it is enough on most days to have them ready by noon. Today my clothing was completely saturated. Yet it did the trick. By the time I left everything was dry. The skies were cloudy and it was humid, but I didn't get any rain on my return trip home. I wasn't all that fond of getting soaked, but the cycling in a lightening store was quite the experience.

Biked into work with the idea of doing a long ride on the return to I could go play fat kid. About one block from work I noticed my steering was terrible and checked my front tire pressure. It was pretty much flat, so I pumped it up and continued. However, in a couple of miles my tire was low again. So I made a stop by a bike shop to get my inner tube replaced. Added quite a bit of time to my trip, but I was back on the road. I started heading toward Waunakee with the sun getting pretty low in the sky, and it was twilight by the time I was on County Q heading back toward Middleton. This is about where my energy bottomed out and the ride got slow. So I decided to lengthen the ride home by taking a slightly longer path around Pheasant Branch Trail. Half way into the trail, I noticed my steering was sluggish again. Sure enough, my new tire was going flat. I pumped it up and was able to finish my ride, just barely achieving the 1500 Calorie requirement for Indian food and a flat tire. I got to eat, but I am not going to be able to ride tomorrow.

Monotone Morning

I have been keeping on eye on the weather and it looked like the rain for today would all be over by the time I biked to breakfast. Sure enough, it was wet this morning but no longer raining. The temperature was around 57°F (13.9°C) and 90% humidity. I decided to wear my cycling shorts and although a little chilly getting started I warmed up and was a sweaty mess by the time I reached downtown. But during my short workday the temperature had not risen. Instead, the humidity dropped and the wind picked up. When I headed back out to the bike for the ride home it was chilly, and I had on cycling shorts. Still, once I got moving I didn't find myself cold or even uncomfortable. I did a long ride, turning north to Waunakee to burn some extra Calories so I could have Indian for dinner. Most of the way there I ran out of push and the remaining 600 Calories of my ride came very slowly. In fact, I had to take a long loop home just to burn off the last 70 Calories--my heartrate hanging around 120 BPM (which is just above walking around).
I've noticed I don't get cold as easy as I use to. Not sure if that is related to how much I bike or not, but I don't mind it. However, I do find that cycling when it is cooler makes me push myself less.